Harmonic To Present Full-GOP Ultra HD Encoding With New Electra X Platform
At the 2015 NAB Show, video delivery infrastructure provider Harmonic (booth SU1210) will showcase the latest innovations in video production and delivery workflows for broadcast and multiscreen services. Harmonic’s end-to-end video infrastructure solutions enable broadcasters and service providers to produce, deliver, and monetize amazing video experiences, with increased business agility and operational efficiency, by consistently providing market-leading innovation, high-quality service and low total-cost-of-ownership (TCO).
“Today’s consumers demand high-quality customized sports, entertainment and news video on any device, anywhere, anytime,” says Peter Alexander, chief marketing officer at Harmonic. “At NAB, Harmonic will demonstrate how broadcasters and service providers can create, deliver and monetize this consumer experience with unprecedented agility and cost efficiency leveraging our video processing, virtualized video infrastructure and channel playout solutions.”
Harmonic’s new Electra X family of advanced media processors is the world’s first encoder platform to support live, full-frame, frame-pipeline (full-GOP) Ultra HD (UHD) encoding and the industry’s first fully converged platform to support video compression, graphics, branding and playout for broadcast and OTT delivery, according to the company. On display will be a live UHD encoding workflow featuring the Electra X3 advanced media processor. Powered by the Harmonic PURE Compression Engine encoding module, the Electra X3 enables broadcasters to deliver real-time, broadcast-ready UHD content up to 2160p60 (HEVC Main 10 profile). As the industry’s first full-frame UHD encoder in a single 2-RU appliance, Electra X3 integrates easily into existing workflows and offers low power consumption, bringing additional TCO benefits to operators.
The Harmonic VOS platform is a fully virtualized video infrastructure that includes Electra XVM, the industry’s first software-based, fully converged, broadcast-ready media processing platform. VOS is a software-based, virtualizable platform that unifies the entire media processing chain for broadcast and multiscreen distribution — including ingest, compression, graphics and branding, packaging and delivery on common hardware platforms. The VOS architecture enables broadcasters to simplify workflows, maximize flexibility and gain operational efficiency while decreasing their TCO.
An end-to-end HEVC-based video transmission solution will be on hand featuring Harmonic’s new ProView 7100 integrated receiver-decoder (IRD), which supports the HEVC standard up to 1080p60 resolution, maximizing bandwidth efficiency while maintaining high video quality for broadcast service delivery.
Harmonic Polaris software are a new suite of playout management tools integrated with Harmonic’s Spectrum media server family. The demo will showcase the wide range of capabilities that Polaris supports, from fully automated integrated channel playout (ICP) to channel-in-a-box automation (CIAB) and integrated master control room (iMCR) workflows.
Density improvements will also be highlighted for Harmonic’s MediaGrid shared storage system. The new high-density storage system provides 15-RU worth of conventional MediaGrid storage into just 5-RU and supports up to 360TB of usable storage per chassis. The result is a 30% improvement in rack density and greater than 30-percent cost savings per TB.